Art events in 2019

The museums and galleries of art capitals such as Paris, London, New York and Madrid promise a year of important exhibitions.

New York’s Guggenheim exhibits the legacy of the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe at an exhibition that runs from 25/01 to 05/01/2020 - Robert Mapplethorpe Self Portrait, 1980 / Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

Just 30 years after the death of one of the United States’ most critically acclaimed and controversial 20th-century artists, the museum is hosting this two-part exhibition - Robert Mapplethorpe Untitled, 1973 / Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

One of them will exhibit his early Polaroids and some of his classicising photographs of nudes and flowers, portraits of celebrities and self-portraits. The second will analyse the artist’s impact on the field of contemporary portraiture, using images by contemporaneous artists referencing Mapplethorpe’s works - Robert Mapplethorpe Calla Lily, 1986 / Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

Paris, the nerve centre of Cubism, is hosting the first exhibition focused on this current since 1953 at the Pompidou Centre, until 25/02 - Francis Picabia La Procession, Séville, 1912 / National Gallery of Art, Washington y ADAGP, Paris 2018.

A total of 300 works and documents illustrating the influence of this early vanguard are presented chronologically in 14 sections, with special emphasis on two creators: Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque - Georges Braque La Guitare Statue d’épouvante, 11/1913 / RMN-Grand Palais (Musée national Picasso-Paris) and ADAGP, Paris 2018.

The institution is exhibiting several of Picasso’s masterpieces, including one of his most acclaimed portraits, the painting of the influential US collector Gertrude Stein (1906). Works by Ambroise Volard and a set of paintings and sculptures never before seen together are also included - Pablo Picasso Portrait de Gertrude Stein, 1905-1906 / The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dist RMN-Grand Palais / image from MMA and Succession Picasso 2018

From 27/02 to 9/06, London’s Tate Modern has organised what is to be the UK’s first large retrospective of the oeuvre of Dorothea Tanning - Dorothea Tanning (1910 – 2012) Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1943 / DACS, 2018.

An innovative union of the work of the video artist Bill Viola with paintings by Michelangelo which can be visited at London’s Royal Academy of Arts from 26/01/2019 to 31/03/2019. The museum is open on Fridays until 10pm - Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Warwick Pietà), 1530-35 Black chalk on paper 28.1 x 26.8 cm The British Museum, London. Inv. No. 1896,0710.1 / The Trustees of the British Museum.

Although these artists are separated by five centuries, their common concern for human existence has created the artistic relationship shown by the exhibition - Bill Viola, Nantes Triptych, 1992 sound-video installation / Bill Viola Studio Image: Kira Perov.

The exhibition is divided into 12 of Viola’s video installations accompanied by 15 works by Michelangelo that reveal the two artists’ most spiritual and emotional sides - Michelangelo Buonarroti, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ (Warwick Pietà), 1530-35 Black chalk on paper 28.1 x 26.8 cm The British Museum, London. Inv. No. 1896,0710.1 / The Trustees of the British Museum.

From 19/11, Madrid’s Prado National Museum – one of the world’s most important museums – is celebrating its 200th anniversary, a wonderful opportunity to get a first-hand look at the museum’s birth and to understand its cultural importance, both nationally and internationally - Museo del Prado, view of the Velázquez Galleries José Lacoste y Borde, 1900 – 1907 / Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado.

Different activities, temporary exhibitions and performances will take place throughout 2019 to show this institution’s past and present. And the future, too, with its upcoming expansion with the Hall of Realms restored by the award-winning architect Norman Foster - María Isabel de Braganza as a founder of the Museo del PradoBernardo López Piquer / Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado.

Museo del Prado 1819-2019. Un lugar de memoria (19/11/2018-10/03/2019) is the name of the exhibition that will kick off the bicentennial celebration with a tour of the museum’s history - The Countess of Chinchón Francisco de Goya, 1800 / Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado.

Cristóbal Balenciaga, one of history’s most important and admired haute-couture designers, was always closely tied to Spanish art, which served as one of his greatest inspirations – Francisco de Goya La reina María Luisa con tontillo, around 1789 / Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.

This influence can be seen in many of his designs, in which he reinterpreted symbolic moments in Spanish history along with paintings by masters such as Velázquez, Picasso and Zurbarán. These works of Spanish painting from the 16th to the 20th centuries will be shown together with a large collection of his pieces, some of them never before exhibited – Evening dress in yellow satin, 1960 / Cristóbal Balenciaga Museum.

New York’s Guggenheim exhibits the legacy of the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe at an exhibition that runs from 25/01 to 05/01/2020 - Robert Mapplethorpe Self Portrait, 1980 / Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation

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